You can also download “Hydrology of California” as a PDF.
HYDROLOGY OF CALIFORNIA
An ecopoeticical alphabet
There’s a river of rivers in California beyond all earthquakes
bringing coiled water from the north It is grammar when we are anxious
in our days bringing tumble from freshets north of Klamath where
redwoods release fog drops
ceaselessly from filtered tops Steelhead Coho salmon the few that do
to Humboldt past dams hereafter known as / where streams/ like
colorless green ideas leap furiously/ where the Eel River flooding 753,000
feet per second /sees
fewer eels than before
Future of poetry there’s a stream between a & b as i write this a dream
of a west that would outlast us/ if we were life which we are drops
from Trinity ice storms to Smith River & down North Coast regions
brighter seaside towns with
two waitresses named Pam
Future of poetry i saw a black-faced gull a juvenile awaiting neap tide
We use the word neap to mean purple runnels/ Banks gathered wild force
at the edge of names Mattole Navarro /Hearts gathered wild force electrons
trading energy for food
Future of poetry Let’s move between emotions in hydropoetics for i am a
pilgrim with no progress recalling rivers when we were anxious
past wetlands needing every turning time/ more than people need
little dams for arugula
Many had lawns They had to shower/ They had to eat i said to main brenda
Now don’t start just ignorantly criticizing state dams the whole time
You drink gallons of it you know you do / We followed creeks through decades
left of where eagles
can eat whole deer
Stopped near Fort Ross We looked up to redwoods releasing beads fog
drops The women so kind in Mendocino They took the beyond & ran
with it You wrote on the memory tablets/ Blind sticks arranged themselves
Water-bearer was your star
Our settlements didn’t last
nor should they have nor should they There were economics & lifestyles
after explorers made possible the cogs/ .00001 percent in rain fell
down /We stood & loved south/ of the delicate eerie lighthouse at
Point Arena where griefless
the sea lions loll
There’s a quiver of rivers the Sacramento We saw a pleasant pheasant
near a pylon in the Delta its back a walking rainbow in 100,000 acres
they saved the they who can save\ We don’t hate developers or do we
We hate their greed
those butt-ugly buildings Actually
butts are adorable compared to Gated communities/ the poor buildings
can’t even cry though wild radish loves them Raphanus raphanistrum
“common in disturbed places” Maltese crosses each flower a shadow/
violet in its means/
We ran near why-worry
levees & one time one of the developers said Well you wouldn’t want
to live in a tee-pee now would you brenda Future of poetry we saw
dactylic glomerata Leaves of grasses\ i don’t honestly mind the word
introduced as in introduced species between c & d dogtail grasses cynosurus
echinatus Near the Capitol
assemblymembers were drinking Fanta
near a fanning flood-plain/ coots with white beaks east of Feather River
between e & f trace horse gold rush \boys picking pyrite from the North
Fork & 2 waitresses named Toni Gold must be so glad in heaven
glad & gold are
brothers w/ different mothers
The lovely & a bit dammed American River\ mergansers & brome/
buffleheads like reverse Oreos rice fields\ algae from phosphates Such
afternoons might seem owned O unrushed dream of time i saw some
earthly flapping in the
rushes/ swallows eating pounds
of gnats/ & both shall row My love & i leaned on our tailbone The
Giants were ahead for a change in someone’s earphones A fundraiser for
fucked-up rivers History turned half our faces golden for a change\A
day so bright
we could not hear
the paradox set up by Being Then Gary yelled Hey & a tall cloud
passed by like a yoga teacher Inside each seed\ didn’t look like
competition but floated forever from us to you Future of poetry
We wanted not to fear human life to know as molecules know like
water from a book
There’s a shiver of rivers north of Shasta that melts when we are faster
storms split the plus signs lava flowed from night caves marshes
with magpies that dipped like punk nuns we kept the word “beauty”
in mind for Shastina
that upside-down bride 75%
of H2O slides from north of Tahoe\ 1685 feet deep high into nothingness
Twain wrote where some say the dead sink frozen in their costumes
Future of poetry we entered the howling edges of a dream looked back to
Celestial City texted each
other & soon whole
words will be gone c u l8r will remain But rain loves the day like haiku
River goes out river comes in like a cat\ googled eutrophication for June so
that no word should die New words shall sprout in dreams beyond time
Trout spawned chasmistes cujus/
We saw some types
of knotting in nature between g & h What should we call those silvery
gray parenthesis-type things hanging off lodge pole pines Don’t colonize
that tree by naming it a nameless poet said Lucky he doesn’t have to
hunt for his food
a naming poet said
The pine at the end of the mind Life from Life Form from Form Be-
gotten not sprayed Of one being with the Mother Through Her rough
cones were made \We hiked Desolation noted streaky granites moraines
condensation infiltration evaporation chanted
Byzantium past Shirley Lake
You pronounced it Byzanseeum needleminer moths what peeves you David
said a fly-catcher said perched in blister rust bitterbrush needing mouse-
shit for its pilgrim’s process/ under fluttering twisted braids cirrus clouds
Leaves of grasses’ panicles
reduced in mountain air
slowed down between i & j ice age relic trees populus tremuloides
we worried less Glaciers beneath Boreal & Tui chub melts down to Walker
Lake pelecanus erythrorhynchos if not too salty for them if not but extinction
lasts forever in its
rivers from a book
There’s a sliver of rivers west of Napa which rhymes when we are happy
its timed relation to high heat makes cuneiform of grapevines snappy
sharpshooters’ wings are glassy hills blonde as conference coffee/ tawny
paws of mountain lions
trout declined Lake Berryessa
our hope for the good\ Dragonflies with six ankles over lightest summer
Entered a cool winery saw oaken caskets in earth’s wild force You pushed
on in your shivers don’t make pilgrim’s progress /please greet us forever
between k & l
sages & mugwort where
nostalgia happens forward / County Fair not Vanity Sweet girls in black
hoodies alienated labor & Karmel Korn a cloying smell tho’ Karmel
Korn is also nature Future of Poetry an oak spoke to me as i walked
on the mountain not
like God speaking to
Bush about Iraq The creek was full of trash & origins/ It said search between
m & n for what we have destroyed & both shall row on Papermill Creek my
love & i saw huge orange nonsense dragonflies like fire engines medium
bluets like tiny folded
pool-cues & western green
ones of unimaginable luster On winter Fridays paper snowflakes taped
on Inverness School windows County funding drying up so only one
snowflake per child Seeds of herbs dreaming in their packets at Toby’s
Future of poetry Everything
feels everything i don’t
just think so i know so Lagunitas Creek feels ridged horsetails push up
from the Precambrian Beetles fringed gourds fleabane under July sky feels
big old see-through ferns red currents There are half-emotions between all
officially recognized emotions i
said to the lady
in buckeyes’ sacred grove syncaris pacifica sulfur butterflies California sisters
cabbage whites west coast ladies western tiger swallowtail riparian rhymes
with carrion cowbird w/ the oil-spill neck walks like a hieroglyph\
at Coast Camp near
wood-rats’ nests like
water from a book
There’s a giver of rivers the Central coast & you would go almost
if you were a you instead of a Future which you are w/ all the santas
Santa Inez Santa Cruz An owl waits nearby cathartes aura 14 bones
in its head directional
hearing owls aren’t really
wise they turn south to hear poor kids’ guns going off at Travis Airforce
orders are given between fogdrops/ money flies & money wrongs
the Pacific This pilgrim makes no progress in her flight a marbled
murrelet feeding at sea
nesting in old growth redwood
Future of poetry i
saw shorebirds choking on shy crabs shaking sand off bull kelp tossed
from the deep Gulls look like girls quickly judging each other’s purses
Now Democrats also say offshore drilling isn’t too bad/ You came to me
in a dream beyond
time\This life you
sang in your offkey way between o & p old moon-laden & tawdry we drove
near Salinas a river Steinbeck called “part-time” fields of garlic red-legged
frogs in flood plains Sang to me quite tenderly between q & r Carmel had
steelhead once & pond
turtles their necks ridged
like destiny The stream flowed right past Tor House steelhead your onchor-
hyncus mykiss funny that trout has mykiss in its name Yes i know i know
humans can’t not play golf Geese pull worms through agricultural runoff
pooling on side lawns
Does use feel bad
i asked the worms being pulled Silver butterflies feeding on deer shit
parasite anthopleura elegantissima My love & i so busily drove to a poetry
reading past fuzzy artichokes near Gilroy Prophet thistles w/streams
that drop near Santa Cruz
How shall we live
& they indicated as if John Muir replied so low a human voice cannot hear
you want your tomatoes don’t you You want Almond Delite & golf
You want to drink Sprite w/runnels of gravy at Denny’s\faces in
laminated menus wind-surfing widows This is the price the stream went
refugees in aqueducts like
water from a book
The deliver of rivers the San Joaquin that blends when we are minor
with broken strings & finer in port towns near Carquinez saline marinas
south Delta bevels near 57 levees the age main brenda is now writing this
The soul is the
water & the aqueduct
transferred to the slough at some point i love the word slough Could
write it all day long Slew of sloughs down off 99 Saw rough- cut Berenda
Slough pumping H2O costs more than it makes\ under Hetch-Hetchy
they named after seeds
2.1 million acre feet
into the Aqueduct past Merced Papery onion skins flying off trucks A
billboard signed by Jesus Desire saved the Chinook 130, 000 & now only
100 in Tuolumne\ 2 waitresses named Debbie bad snowpack year so
almost no veil at
Bridalveil Falls but delicate
mists tumbled & a
Clark’s nutcracker flew thru them Future of Poetry between s & t We saw
a meadow spirit a high vortex in the years of writing this hydro-ecopoetics
Snow sparkles/ Thou shalt flow down after dusk Vernal Falls downvalley
Cusumnes/ Fields of sticky
tarweed pressed ham in
convenience stores & the H2O tastes a little chemically in Fresno We
miss Larry Levis crystal music of his forms/ Future of Poetry This is
your Watershed said Pam We saw rain enter a saint’s mouth Interviewed
an irrigation ditch Pray
for us San Joaquin
alleged granddaddy of Jesus Pray backward like a feeling Pray for river
Merced Pray JS keeps some world in a poem so fertilizer won’t kill him
Headwaters hitched to Slurpees 7-11 swimming pools in Stockton Saw
chlorine clouds of infinity
we drank from Pardee
Reservoir Sweated w/ enchantment 90 miles away Hitched others in the
watery beyond/ Hitched to the others we drank/ If you think you’re alone
You haven’t learned the language i gave you snow ^^^ from sugar pines
falls to you in
water for your book
The forgiver of rivers near Tulare that flowed when we were sorry
His vocabulary didn’t do it all/ Drinking did a little A central
California basin\ that couldn’t find the ocean Why do you write like this
a man asked me
Because sir i am
a sorceress looking for my sources Because sir we were diverted/ like a
river to mid-heaven by early salt & late capitalism We had a progress spasm/
snowdrops to Kern chasm 13,000 feet Does use feel bad i asked my love
as dark cast its
opening salma aquabonita &
groundwater spun below desiring to tender us perfectly unexampled 6.5 acre
feet per year to an aquifer It did not flow from the grief tent Tule
River Skunks & badgers willow flycatcher epidonax traillii we
want to see u
between u & v
yellow-billed cuckoo/ Agribusiness did it to our vocabulary Preoccupied
the joy w/spray & amber waves of gray A woman stands over her sage-
brush with a hose in the heat we drive through Bakersfield & one time
at a truck stop
i observed the flavored
condoms on a twirling rack could hardly wait to tell Mary i’m not fucking
kidding u hot-fudge coconut cream pie condoms & piña colada ones also
/We read in the guide book elegy words once formed as in “once formed
Tulare Lake” That made
me mad as Jeffers
What about one itty-bitty bomb on a dam *pow- * Use asterisks instead
No ecoterror for the coyote it had a hurt foot for even rats are scarce
Designated Wilderness go river-rafting/ They’re shooting deer not for
food We carry the burden not the act i did not break our noun yet i did
drink from that well
i drank to the
end of time Took way too many showers for my lifestyle that’s my least
favorite word 4500 gallons per day Went we we wee all the way
to Tehachipi/ & amber waves of avena & i who had seen was implicated all
the way home like
crying from a book
There’s a trickle of rivers the South Lahontan that exits from
a fountain Mono Lake’s three-salt condition chlorate sulfate &
carbons Trout came back thank god When this poet says god she
means god of particular
daughters/ Owens north fork
River god of bitter waters / god of half- existence desert god so
so erotic you know you’re loved already by god of tumbleweed god
of truck-stop coffee god of better get over it get over Sarah Palin
In the Quaternary Period
when i was almost
living i prayed to Mary Austin crinkly places in her spirit Mulholland
stole her water/ L.A. poets knew it power rhymes w/shower
poor Mojave River & Earth will know the source When this poet says
god she means god
of pupfish god of
Joseph Reddeford Walker survivor in the spine/ Some folks think malls
in deserts are nice grasses pretending to be native brine shrimp will return
/flies of alkali Ephydra hians lowest meets the highest Mt. Whitney &
Death Valley soul &
soil exact same word
except for u & i
Future of poetry i saw the great heart in a mirror /Land grew around it
but i have not seen the Amargosa vole found there i have not seen vireo
belli pusillus i saw inland seas Osiris fetched from hydrogeologic edges
from Barstow balmy Palmdale
an Affordable Housing Aqueduct
It does not serve water to the region/Put on Sleater-Kinney to drive there but
never quite arrived there diverted in 1940 like a good lie think Faye Dun-
away in Chinatown don’t abandon what you hope for when you brush my
teeth in Hesperia please
turn the faucet off
Visit us now o vole before the w & x visit us now rhinichthys osculus visit us
now alluvial alluvial bearded spangletop bees in their boxes & we who
had lived were implicated between slopes We climbed the dome & went
home w/a history of
glaciers in a book
There’s a river of nevers the South Coast where some would like it
most if there were a river which there were by gum by the fall of
capitalism The banks crash as we write this We had a pilgrim’s regress
crazy brenda & her
sorceress She ran with
her love on the boardwalk The marine layer grows fatter/ over 13
million travelers You know that part in Vertigo when Kim Novak jumps
backward in the Bay It looks like a set he said but it was filmed on location
That part on the
other hand he said
holding her other hand was filmed in a tank in Los Angeles We are about
out of time O three-spine stickleback O word riparian O valley oak
over Santa Monica o black walnut plowed under long ago Visit us now
in our maritime routes Visit us now Tetradymia spinosa cotton-thorn
Visit us now in
the hour of our
need Visit us now in the hour of our seed of cord grass & Gray’s fescue
Visit us now in the hour over San Gabriel short-awn foxtail & fluff grass
bent grass & blue grama Visit us now in the hour of our native & non-
tree that made Hollywood
Dear love i’m tired
Let’s go to bed Maybe a college girl is reading this when we’re a little
dead O girl mind your watershed Take care of crazy poets
Visit the inner-net In the end there will be a rupture
said Walter whose arcade
thought up the Web
We are freckles of sun We are sleeping in the poem Shoppers stand
in the little shops They don’t know what to buy We lie at the Shangri La
between z & y No one knows how this sentence will end in a dream
with a lyric sky
Visit us Joni Mitchell
Visit us Future of Poetry with a solitude of streamlets into a local
pond the mind at the end of the palm Nothing was gone when we
saw that bird We saw its feathers as water It was in & out of time
Brenda Hillman is the author of eight collections of poetry, all published by Wesleyan University Press, the most recent of which are Pieces of Air in the Epic (2005) and Practical Water (forthcoming, 2009), where “Hydrology of California” will appear. She has edited an edition of Emily Dickinson’s poetry for Shambhala Publications, and, with Patricia Dienstfrey, co-edited The Grand Permission: New Writings on Poetics and Motherhood (Wesleyan, 2003). Hillman is involved in anti-war activism with CodePink and teaches at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California, where she is the Olivia Filippi Professor of Poetry.
